Zina Bethune, an actress, choreographer and dancer, died in the early morning hours Sunday after she apparently left her car along Forest Lawn Drive in Los Angeles to assist an injured animal and was struck by oncoming traffic.

Bethune suffered head injuries and died at the scene. She was 66.

As an actress, Bethune is perhaps best known for playing the girl with a past opposite Harvey Keitel in Martin Scorsese’s 1967 Catholic morality tale Who’s That Knocking at My Door.

Earlier, Bethune starred as a na?ve student nurse in the 1962-65 CBS primetime series The Doctors and the Nurses.

The native New Yorker was a regular on the daytime soaps Guiding Light, Love of Life and Santa Barbara, guest starred on The Judy Garland Show, starred on Broadway in Grand Hotel and appeared in such other series as Naked City, Route 66, Emergency!, Police Story and as a ballet teacher in Party of Five.

Her mother is actress Ivy Bethune, who survives her.

At age six, Zina Bethune began her dancing career at George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet and performed with the New York City Ballet, where she starred as Clara in the first televised The Nutcracker.

In 1980, she founded Bethune Theatredanse (now Theatre Bethune) in Los Angeles, and she led her multimedia company on tours to Europe, Asia and North America. The company performed at the White House.

Bethune choreographed and directed more than 50 dance works, videos and theatrical productions — all while being hampered by dysplastic hips, scoliosis, severe lymphedema and other conditions. Theatre Bethune is the first professional dance program in the U.S. to create a participatory program for disabled youth called Infinite Dreams.

“Infinite Dreams is for all people and is about the spirit and joy of dance,” she once said. “Just because your spirit’s not disabled, why should what you do be disabled?”

In addition to her mother, Bethune is survived by her husband, visual effects veteran and actor Sean Feeley. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Theatre Bethune at

據(jù)報(bào)道，當(dāng)?shù)貢r(shí)間上周日晚，齊娜·貝休恩外出的時(shí)候，看到馬路上躺著一只動(dòng)物尸體，頓生惻隱之心，走向車流集中的馬路，準(zhǔn)備收拾這具尸體。孰料，齊娜·貝休恩一時(shí)大意，沒有看到來(lái)往車輛，先是被一輛迎面而來(lái)汽車撞倒，接著，又被另一輛來(lái)不及剎車的汽車撞飛。

洛杉磯警察局披露，齊娜·貝休恩遭遇兩輛汽車的連續(xù)撞擊后，因頭部嚴(yán)重受傷，當(dāng)場(chǎng)宣布不治身亡。這位66歲的美國(guó)老牌女演員，如此慘死，實(shí)在是令人唏噓。

作為演員，齊娜最著名的電影作品是在馬丁·斯科塞斯的處女作《誰(shuí)在敲我的門》（1967）。齊娜出身演藝世家，6歲就與紐約市立芭蕾舞團(tuán)共同演出，并在百老匯登臺(tái)。齊娜從未放棄對(duì)舞蹈藝術(shù)的追求。1980年，她在洛杉磯成立了非營(yíng)利的舞蹈推廣組織“貝休恩劇院”，在北美、歐洲、亞洲等多地演出，還曾在白宮進(jìn)行演出。此外，她一生關(guān)懷弱勢(shì)群體和動(dòng)物保護(hù)，成立了關(guān)懷殘疾人權(quán)益的公益組織“永恒之夢(mèng)”。